Jaxon Smith-Njigba apparently kept the receipts.
The Seattle Seahawks star revisited one of the defining questions from the beginning of his NFL career in his newly released YouTube film, “The Journey Is Everything”: Could Smith-Njigba really become a No. 1 receiver?
“They’re trying to tell you what you can’t do,” Jonathan Jones, his trainer, says.
Another clip is considerably more direct.
“He’s not a deep threat. He’s not a one.”
That evaluation looks considerably different now.
Smith-Njigba followed his 2024 breakout by catching 119 passes for an NFL-leading 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2025, earning first-team All-Pro honors and becoming the second Seahawks player to win AP Offensive Player of the Year.
And the criticism featured in the video was not some documentary invention.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba Faced Questions About His NFL Ceiling
Smith-Njigba entered the NFL as the No. 20 overall pick in the 2023 draft after a spectacular career at Ohio State, but there were questions about how his game would translate.
Bleacher Report’s Derrik Klassen wrote before the draft that Smith-Njigba lacked the speed to consistently threaten defenses vertically and projected him as a “high-end No. 2 option” rather than a true No. 1.
The discussion followed him into Seattle.
As recently as June 2025, a Field Gulls film review identified vertical receiving as an area Smith-Njigba still needed to improve after his 100-catch, 1,130-yard second season.
His answer came on the field.
Smith-Njigba averaged 15.1 yards per reception in 2025 after averaging 10.0 as a rookie and 11.3 in 2024. He finished the regular season with 27 receptions of at least 20 yards, including eight gains of 40-plus yards.
That’s quite a transformation for a receiver supposedly limited to working underneath.
Smith-Njigba Isn’t Framing His Rise as Revenge
The more revealing portion of Smith-Njigba’s film, however, is what he does with all of that old criticism.
He doesn’t spend much time gloating about it.
“When you stand on something, when you believe in something, when you put the time in, it’s what happens,” Smith-Njigba said. “It ain’t about proving them wrong. I could care less about that.”
His preferred framing is considerably more personal.
“We’re proving God right.”
That theme runs throughout the film, which follows Smith-Njigba through Seattle’s postseason run, his Offensive Player of the Year honor and the years of work involving his family that preceded both.
“What you put in is what you get out,” he said. “My brother never took a shortcut. I ain’t never took a shortcut. My people never took a shortcut.”
Smith-Njigba no longer has much left to prove about whether he can function as Seattle’s No. 1 receiver.
Two games into the 2026 season, he’s already caught 17 passes for 277 yards and four touchdowns. His longest reception went for 82 yards.
The deep-threat question isn’t much of a question anymore.
Seahawks Star Jaxon Smith-Njigba Sends Blunt Message to Critics